Something is rotten in the state of American political life. The U.S. (among other nations) is increasingly characterized by highly polarized, informationally insulated ideological communities occupying their own factual universes.
Within the conservative political blogosphere, global warming is either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online communities, vaccines, fluoridated water and genetically modified foods are known to be dangerous. Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy.
None of that is correct, though. The reality of human-caused global warming is settled science. The alleged link between vaccines and autism has been debunked as conclusively as anything in the history of epidemiology. It’s easy to find authoritative refutations of Donald Trump’s self-exculpatory claims regarding Ukraine and many other issues.
Yet many well-educated people sincerely deny evidence-based conclusions on these matters.
It is apparently not even due to a lack of knowledge, and in fact some studies show the better education the worse the bias can be. We also know that presenting actual facts makes little difference (I’ve seen this myself when dealing with some of these people trolling my posts). I’ll be honest that this really scares me! It does explain a lot of things happening today, and of course scientists are also generally not vocal nor are they lobbyists.
Maybe the best solution is to get politicians and religious leaders (remember religious leaders are not all in agreement) to stay out of expressing opinions? At the root of it probably lies power and influence issues, two issues would you would not expect to be at the fore of these humble and modest servants of the people…
Read more about the observations at Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview
Something is rotten in the state of American political life. The U.S. (among other nations) is increasingly characterized by highly polarized, informationally insulated ideological communities occupying their own factual universes. Within the conservative political blogosphere, global warming is either